Williams’ Director of Admissions sent this letter to the New York Times:

“Applications to Elite Colleges Are Up This Year, Despite the Economic Downturn” (news article, March 30) mentions this year’s decline in the number of applications to Williams College and suggests possible explanations related to the economy.

Here are some relevant facts. Last year, the number of applicants to Williams spiked by 17 percent. We decided to add a Williams-specific essay to the common application to better determine who among our applicants would benefit most from a Williams education.

We ended up this year with not only the third-largest applicant pool in our history, but also, and more important, our most talented and diverse. We are therefore more excited than ever about the applicants we admitted this week.